My family wanted to spend Xmas 2008 in Mahabalipuram near Chennai and we wanted to stay in a good beach resort. I tried calling up various hotels and resorts 2 weeks prior and still couldnt get a booking for a single room for 2 nights. REason- holiday season! Of the hotel list which I had prepared, was a resort named Green MEadows resort on the way to chennai.
It suited me perfectly and I also tried to get a booking there by calling up but no avail. I happened to see the same resort on Yatra.com for a slightly lesser rate than what the hotel website had put up. Though they had mentioned there were no rooms, I trusted Yatra as their website showed me that booking was available for this hotel. They ended up charging Rs.7000+ to my credit card and even sent me the hotel voucher.
But my curiosity saved me and when I called up the hotel a few days later, just before my journey, they told me they were booked till jan 5 and absolutely not heard anything from yatra. I was really heart broken as I had told all my friends about this trip and how I managed to get the booking thru yatra.
Immediately, called up yatra customer care and the agent told me he will call me back in 15mins and resolve the issue. 2 hrs passed and I didnt hear from them. So I had to call them back and he put me to his superior who had the audacity to tell me that he already knew that my booking wasnt done due to non-availability of rooms.
He also told me that he is trying to find me another hotel for the same price. He said he will call me in one hr and give me the new accomodation voucher.What bullshit! what guarantee that I will like his choice of hotel? This person very well knew in advance that the resort I had booked was completely sold out but still he didnt bother to inform me for 3 full days. Instead here he was, trying to make stupid amends. I shouted at him for his crappy service and demanded a cancellation with full refund of the money they had charged.
After several follow-ups (not once did they call me) and emails, the money was refunded after 15days while they had told me 7 days!
I also ended up cancelling the train tickets and lost about Rs.300 in the bargain. Didnt mind that but imagine if I had gone to the resort without proactively calling them and they had to turn me away! I would have sued YATRA for the harassment!
Why shouldn’t there be a rule that customers penalise such bad service ? If we cancel or reschedule our bookings, we are charged a hefty fine. The same rule should apply to them also! Atleast makemytrip makes some consolation in this regard. If the customer doesnt hear about his booking within 24hrs, they will give Rs.1000 off on the next trip! So there is a service guarantee policy in place.
TiP: Always call the hotel well in advance to reconfirm the bookings and dates! A stitch in time saves nine!